The Great Pokemon Conspiracies: The Old Chateau
by Cheese Nachos Supreme
Summary: What is the story behind its forbidding walls? Every old house has its history. The Old Chateau has a tragic one.
1. Prologue

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**...**

**PROLOGUE**

Welcome to the Sinnoh region, the fourth region in the Pokémon World. It is a region with new and different Pokémon from the other regions and new places to explore. Our Trainer, a girl from Twinleaf Town called Dusk, is doing just that: discovering new Pokémon species and exploring the region while trying to complete her Pokédex and defeat the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and be the Pokémon Champion.

Now, let me introduce myself. My name is Tails and I am a female Ninetales. Dusk has trained me since I was a Vulpix and she made sure that I learnt all the good moves as a Vulpix before evolving me with a Fire Stone. Well, it was good to learn cool moves, but it was a bit hard to perform those moves in Vulpix's small frame, so it felt good to evolve at last.

Dusk is that kind of Trainer who loves to give her Pokémon nicknames. So, the other Pokémon in her party are Ultramarine the male Empoleon, Meta Knight the male Gallade, Silversong the female Froslass, Swiftwing the male Staraptor, Roselio the male Roselia, and myself, Tails. Dusk is also that kind of girl who just loves video games, which is why she named me after Tails from the Sonic games and Gallade Meta Knight after the famous Star Warrior from the Kirby games.

Well, like I said earlier, Sinnoh is a region with new places... And some of them is just plain spooky, and one of them almost drove me nuts while we were exploring it.

Almost.


	2. Chapter 1: Where There is Light

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter One: Where There is Light...**

...

"Look! You can't even see the sky!"

It was, of course, my fellow party member Roselio. How he has always managed to stay so positive and energetic everywhere and every time has always been beyond me.

"Roselio! Don't wander off too far," Dusk warned. "There are a lot of bugs in here."

Dusk is our Trainer. She has medium-length black hair, and a portion of it was clipped with pink hair clips on either side of her head. Since it was winter in Sinnoh, she was dressed in a warm red dress-coat, pink boots, a matching pink scarf, and a white cap with a pink Poké Ball on it. Her Pokémon Training stuff are neatly packed away in a white and pink gym bag.

By 'here', she meant the Eterna Forest between Oreburgh Town and Eterna City. Roselio was right - the leaves of the trees practically blocked our view of the sky. But Dusk was also right - there were a lot of Bug-types in this forest, which Roselio was particularly afraid of.

Roselio disobeyed her, however, and learnt his lesson the next moment as a Cascoon fell out of a tree right in front of him with a thud.

"AAAHHHHH!" shrieked Roselio, springing back to where Dusk was standing.

I chuckled slightly. Roselio may be a rose-shaped Pokémon, but he was as bouncy and lively as a bouncy ball.

Now he peeked out from behind Dusk. "What are we going to do here, exactly?" he asked nervously.

"We're looking for new Pokémon, of course," Dusk said. "I'm looking for Pokémon that only go out at night. That's why we only set out when it's about to get dark."

Roselio gulped. "You mean it's going to get dark soon?" He looked up at the sky, but of course he couldn't see where the sun was because of the heavy foliage.

Silversong glanced at Dusk's Pokétch. "Yup," she said. "Very soon." She looked at Roselio with those haunting eyes of hers. "Very soon indeed."

Roselio glared at her. "Cut that out!"

"Are you scared?" asked Swiftwing.

"Am not," snapped Roselio.

"Well then, can you go into that house... alone?" Swiftwing challenged, nodding at a large but seemingly abandoned house among the trees. It looked really old and rickety with weather-worn shutters flapping in the wind. However, it must have looked pretty majestic in the older days. It was surrounded with a wooden fence with bushes and brambles covering the opening and sealing the entrance.

As Roselio gulped nervously, Dusk sprang forward. "Oh! I've completely forgotten about this house!"

"What do you mean, completely forgotten?" asked Silversong.

"Don't you remember? We've already seen this house the first time we entered Eterna Forest," Dusk reminded her. "But then we couldn't enter it because we haven't been able to use the Hidden Move Cut, because we haven't beaten Gardenia at the Eterna Gym yet."

"But now since we've beaten Gardenia..." Ultramarine started. "We can enter the house!" gulped Roselio.

"That's right!" Dusk exclaimed. "I've been wanting to catch nocturnal Pokémon in the forest, but now I've got a better idea...!"

Roselio moaned. "Oh no, no, no, no!" he groaned. He already had an idea what Dusk was going to say.


	3. Chapter 2: There is Darkness

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Two: There is Darkness**

After rather breaking into the grounds of the abandoned house with the help of Meta Knight's Cut, Dusk began to explore. First, she explored the front lawn of the house, which was overgrown with weeds. After finding some items among the wild weeds and some others with her Dowsing Machine, she was ready to go into the house itself.

An old stone sign beside the door bore the words 'OLD CHATEAU' in faded letters. I tried not to focus too much on the fact that the sign now looked more like a tombstone than an innocent sign.

The door opened with an ominous creak, which practically set Roselio on edge. The second we entered, the door mysteriously swung shut by itself.

"I'm positive there was no wind outside," mumbled Ultramarine. "What was that?" Roselio asked fearfully. "Oh, nothing," Ultramarine said quickly in order not to frighten him any more.

The inside of the house was as silent as a cemetery, but there was an ominous sense of foreboding as we went in deeper.

There were two sets of stairs leading from an upper floor to the ground floor, one on the left and the other on the right. Right in front of us was a single door, and there were a Pokémon statue on each side of it. Roselio was sure their eyes were trailing him as he went past...

And then a question whizzed into his brain. What had he gotten himself into this time?!


	4. Chapter 3: The Chandelier Room

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Three: The Chandelier Room**

"Well, where do you want to explore first?" asked Dusk. "Nowhere!" moaned Roselio softly. "Let's get out of here!"

Ultramarine rolled his eyes. "You are well aware that you don't have that choice, aren't you?" "Well, let's start with the door right there," I said to change the subject, tossing my head at the door right in front of us.

Dusk nodded in agreement. "Great idea, then we'll work our way to the top floor. Let's go!"

She marched boldly to the door with her Pokémon following behind. Roselio attempted escape by turning on his heel and heading for the front door, but in his frightened scramble for exit, he crashed straight into Meta Knight instead.

"Trying to escape, were you?" Meta Knight sighed. He grabbed Roselio by his arm and led him back to Dusk's group. "Gaah! Lemme go! Lemme go! I don't want to stay in this horrid house a second longer!" Roselio was yelling the whole time.

Dusk was about to say something when Roselio managed to squirm out of Meta Knight's grip and ran for the door. He grabbed the handle as if hanging on for dear life and began to jiggle it.

"IT WON'T OPEN!" he wailed the horrible realization. "WE'RE LOCKED IN!"

Swiftwing simply flew over and plucked Roselio into the air. "It's probably just stuck," he grunted. "Well, anyway, that means we have every reason to go deeper in, right? We'll find a way to open that door later. Come on, we're going to explore this room first."

Dusk went into the room followed by her Pokémon, including Roselio. He did look back to attempt another escape, but saw that Swiftwing was standing in his way. He had no choice but to follow.

"Wow! This room was obviously the dining room back then," Dusk observed, taking in the very long table that almost spanned the entire length of the room and chairs on the sides of it. A huge rickety chandelier hung limply from the ceiling. It was made of glass and I bet it would have looked majestic, with light bouncing off the hanging glass. However, I reminded myself not to get too close beneath it, because it might fall off the ceiling.

Swiftwing obviously did not have the same thought as I did.

He flew past Dusk eagerly to explore and hovered right under the chandelier. At the same time, I saw that the chandelier was rocking harder.

"Look out!" shouted Dusk and Silversong together.

The cable holding the chandelier finally snapped and it came hurtling down towards the ground, glass and all.

Swiftwing quickly took to the air and flew away from under the chandelier. It hit the ground with a colossal CRASH and the glass from it hurtled in every direction.

"AAAAH!" Roselio shrieked.

Meta Knight was a quick-witted Gallade. He quickly jumped in front of us and shouted, "Protect!"

He was not a second too soon - the next moment the glass came raining down, but we were safe under Meta Knight's Protect.

And when it was over, Roselio's mouth was in a perfect O.

"SEE! I WAS RIGHT! THIS PLACE IS AWFUL!" The next second he started wailing. "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Don't be silly," said Swiftwing. "The rest of the place isn't as dangerous as this."

"Swiftwing is right," Dusk said. "But anyway, we'll be careful, just in case."

Roselio moaned. "Whenever you say that, that's bad." The other Pokémon responded either with snorts or the rolling of eyes.

That is, everyone but Silversong.

Suddenly she stiffened.

Dusk noticed her frozen body go even more rigid and asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"

Silversong trained her pale blue eyes on us. "I think there's someone else inside this house."


	5. Chapter 4: Things Get Spooky

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Four: Things Get Spooky**

Everyone quickly looked around. There was no one else except for the seven of us.

Well, OK, maybe not all of us looked around. Roselio was too busy looking down at the ground. He didn't want to see who it was if we really weren't alone.

That was when he surprised us out of our skin (or fur) by screeching, "AAAAAAAAHHHH!" and running to hide behind Ultramarine.

"What's wrong?!" Dusk asked, turning around abruptly.

"Th-th-there!" Roselio pointed a shaky rose at the shards of glass littered on the ground. "I s-s-saw something in th-th-there!"

I coolly went and peered at the shards of glass. "Nothing," I said, raising an eyebrow as I turned to look at the cowering Roselio.

He let out another little scream, his arm still pointed directly at the shards. "THERE!"

I whipped my head around again, looking at the shards. What I saw in them this time made me step back in horror. Silversong was also unlucky enough to see it. She gasped.

In the shards, there was a face like no other. It belonged to someone rugged and old. It was very pale, almost white, but was sooty and covered in dusty black patches. Its eyes were unnaturally wide until we could see white all around the pupils. It had a white mustache, and its mouth was in a perfect O as if screaming in silent fear.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Roselio, Silversong, and I screamed in not-so-silent fear.

"OK, OK." Swiftwing winged his way past us until he was standing right in front of the shards. "What is it? What did you see?"

He looked at the shards, and frowned when he couldn't see anything. "I don't see anything."

"There was a face in there," Silversong said.

"Maybe you only saw my reflection?" Dusk suggested. Maybe she was worried that we might be loony more than anything else.

"No, it was of an old man," I insisted. "We did see it."

Dusk looked around but saw no old man. "Are you sure?"

"Of course we are!" Silversong exclaimed indignantly. "We know what we see."

Roselio shook his head. "That's it," he said. "I hate this place. I'm getting out of here."

And before Swiftwing could stop him, he had already run out of the dining room.

...

We followed Roselio out into the hall to see him throw himself at the door.

"I can't open it," he wailed.

"Like I said earlier, it's probably just stuck," Swiftwing said, flying over to try it. It stayed stuck.

"Here, let me," Ultramarine said. He jiggled the door handle. The only thing he did was break it off.

All the color drained from Roselio's face. "Oh. Well then, we're doomed."


	6. Chapter 5: Whispers from the Dead

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Five: Whispers from the Dead**

Meanwhile, a good distance away in Hearthome City, a woman stood, tall and elegant, in front of a rather large bowl filled with water. She was surrounded by a dozen or so candles, and a Gengar stood behind her, being the only other 'living' thing in the darkened room. The candlelight shone in its eyes and bounced off the glittering sequins of the woman's elegant purple floor-length dress.

"DeepSeaScale of a Gorebyss."

An elegant arm reached out and sprinkled some pink scales into the bowl. Mysteriously, the scales whirled around in the water, as if they were stuck in a hurricane.

"DeepSeaTooth of a Huntail."

More ingredients were put into the bowl.

"Scale of a Dragonair...

Tentacle of a Tangrowth...

Petal of a Meganium...

Some electrified furs of a Pikachu...

And last but not least, poison of a Gengar."

She produced a small vial filled with a strange purple substance. She opened it and gently let one drop fall into the bowl. Immediately smoke puffed into the air above the concoction. The candlelight flickered.

"...And with this I contact the world of the dead."

The woman's eyes were shut, and slowly but surely a picture of a little girl was forming in her mind. She was happily playing around in a garden, playing tag with the butterflies.

Blue skies.

Laughter.

And as fast as it had come, it went.

The picture dissolved and disappeared.

The woman had failed again.

"No!" She moaned, falling to her knees on the floor despite her sophisticated-looking dress.

Another séance gone, another séance failed. Even her reputation and status as the Ghost-type Gym Leader and her familiarity with anything undead hadn't helped her contact the dearly departed.

But then she paused. She may not have been able to talk to those beyond the grave, but she _did_ get something else. She had a feeling in her gut, a heavy sense of foreboding. It was almost like a vision.

Something, somewhere far away, just wasn't right.

Her eyes opened wide, white all around the pupils, like those of someone screaming in silent fear.

She knew what it was.

...The candles in the room flickered out, leaving her and Gengar in complete darkness.


	7. Chapter 6: One Stairway Up

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Six: One Stairway Up**

"You know what they say," Swiftwing said lightly, "If you can't get out, go farther in."

"I thought they said 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em'," detail-oriented Silversong said.

"Whatever," Swiftwing said dismissively. "I think we should go farther in. Maybe there's another exit somewhere inside."

"There isn't any other exit," Roselio moaned, but Meta Knight, Ultramarine, and Silversong were already nodding their heads.

Dusk took charge of the situation - she IS our trainer - and said, "Swiftwing is right. Whenever we meet a dead end, we shouldn't dwell on our problem. We should move on."

"Well said, Trainer," Meta Knight agreed gruffly.

"Well then, let's go one stairway up, shall we?" Dusk said, trying to sound as upbeat as possible.

...

We went upstairs, and were immediately greeted by doors.

Doors.

More doors.

"Man, this looks like a never-ending corridor lined with doors," Swiftwing complained. "Do we have to go into each room?"

"Of course," Dusk replied. "A good Pokémon Trainer knows better than to skip places. We always explore every nook and cranny thoroughly."

"Well said," Meta Knight said again.

"Thanks," Dusk smiled. "That's what my Kantonese friend Kammy always says."

We followed Dusk into the first room through the door on the very left end of the corridor. We passed a lot of portraits hung on the walls. They all showed men and women wearing old-fashioned clothes.

Roselio made the mistake of looking around until he got some distance behind the others. Suddenly, he yelped.

"What is it, scaredy-cat?" Swiftwing sighed.

"Th-th-that man in the photo is glaring at me," Roselio stammered.

"So are every other man and woman in the portraits and so will I if you don't get a move on," Swiftwing said without turning around.

Roselio sighed and started walking again. But eventually he spoke again.

"Swiftwing?"

"What now?"

"Th-th-that man in the portrait just _tickled_ me!"

"Oh, sure."

"No, really, I-" Roselio started to say, but then he realized that Swiftwing wasn't listening to him anymore... Because he wasn't even in the same room any longer.

We all had vanished into one of the many doors, leaving him jolly well behind.

_A Note from the Narrator  
_Due to the fact that the narrator wasn't there to tell the story from her point of view since she had followed Dusk into another room, this part has been based entirely on Roselio's recount of his experience after he got separated. The narrator cannot ascertain that everything here is free of exaggeration. After all, Roselio is a drama king.

(Oh, come on, Roselio. Even you know that).

...All right. Back to the story.

Roselio looked around nervously, alone except for the glaring portraits on the walls.

"Dusk? Meta Knight? Hello? A-anyone...?"

He was alone. Alone with the portraits that glare and _tickle_.

"GYAAAAH!" he screamed in fright when he felt someone pinch his arm. He ran straight into some cobwebs gathered on the opposite wall.

That was when he heard the laugh. It was the type of laugh Swiftwing makes whenever he succeeds in teasing Roselio. Only the one who was laughing wasn't Swiftwing at all.

Roselio turned around just in time to see a new face melt away from that of the man in the portrait. The man in the portrait that was supposed to have tickled him.

Roselio glared at the purple Pokémon whose face had emerged from the portrait, the one who was laughing as if it was the best prank anyone had pulled. He felt more angry than scared now. It was obviously a _prank_.

"Of all the Pokémon who had been in the Old Chateau, you've got to be the biggest scaredy-cat," the purple Pokémon guwaffed. Then he looked thoughtful. "Of course, there's the fact that no other Pokémon has been in here before your party..."

"Who are you?" was the only thing Roselio could think of saying.

"Sorry, my bad. I haven't even introduced myself, have I? Well, if you really must know..." the Pokémon replied. "My name is Gengar."

And then as an afterthought: "Well... My name is Gengar but before that I wasn't Gengar."

If there was something Roselio really hated, it was riddles. If there was something he hated more than riddles, it would be riddles told in a strange house in the middle of a forest.

"What in Sinnoh do you mean by that?!" he demanded in frustration.

Gengar looked as if he didn't even understand it himself. "Well... It's a bit mind-boggling, actually, and even I have yet to figure it out. But the short story's this: I wasn't Gengar before _it_ happened."


	8. Chapter 7: Meanwhile

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Seven: Meanwhile...  
**(Silversong says that this is a lousy chapter title. _A chapter title should be catchy to draw readers to read it, not some one-word junk like "meanwhile". _But I, Tails, as the narrator, shall simply use my veto power to make her shut up and just get on with the story).

Dusk was looking into a pair of eyes.

A pair of eyes, seeming to be young to the world, filled with innocence, yet they were so wide that the pupils were small with whites all around, like those of someone screaming in silent fear.

They belonged to a little girl. An innocent but deathly pale little girl with hair tied up in a childish-looking two-ponytailed style, but her eyes were filled with horror. She walked across the room she had walked across so many times before _it_ happened, and then walked through the wall as if it was something she did everyday.

And then the door was thrown open by a lady in a purple sequined dress.

We all whirled around.

"Gym Leader Fantina?!"

...

(Ultramarine says I'm wasting time by making a chapter as short as this one. Again, my veto power as the narrator works well enough to shut out even Dusk's fully-evolved starter. Oh, and Swiftwing says that this chapter is too short, too. This is so like him to not be able to come up with a more original critique).


	9. Chapter 8: Seance

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Eight: Seancé  
**(_Another one-word chapter title._ Shut up, Silversong. You have no right to tell me what to say and what not to).

_Another seancé gone..._

_Gym Leader Fantina has done so many seancés in her years as a Ghost-type user, but she has only been able to receive rather blurry and short visions which she wasn't even sure whether they made any sense or not._

_But this one, this particular one, was quite long, and instead of enabling Fantina to talk to the dead, she was shown something that might have already happened in the past._

_Unfortunately, unhelpful. And perhaps untrue._

_Fantina says, "Patience is a must. Sometimes you get what you want but sometimes you just don't. But I will certainly keep trying for that's what a Gym Leader does, non?"_

* * *

One of The Many Seancés of Leader Fantina

Blue skies.

Laughter.

A little girl with two bouncing ponytails ran across the lawn of the sprawling house. She was happy and carefree, as if in her young life nothing could ever go wrong.

"You can't catch me, Clefable!" the little girl shouted, laughing, as she ran away from her Pokémon, a plump pink one with ears that stuck out. With a cry the Pokémon followed its young owner, but was unable to keep up due to its short legs. The girl laughed and gave in, walking back to where her Pokémon was panting on the grass.

An old man chuckled and came to the girl. "You'd better get yourself cleaned up, child," he said. "Your mother likes elegance, does she not? She'd certainly want you to look your best, like a girl should. It's high time you've had your bath. You've been running around in the yard the whole morning."

The girl pouted but then brightened up when Clefable stood up. "Hey, you can come with me," she said to her Pokémon. "He can come, can't he?" she asked the old man.

"Yes," he replied with a small chuckle, taking her hand to take her back into the house. "He can." He chuckled again. "You and that Clefable of yours. You'll certainly be best friends forever."

_...Yes._

_All was well before _it _happened._

_A Note from the Narrator  
_You might think I'm a lousy narrator for mentioning so many "it"s without actually telling you what "it" is (and, Silversong adds, for using single words as chapter titles. Thanks so much, Silversong). But hey, what's a mystery/supernatural story without a bit of supernatural mystery? Besides, get ready for my next chapters - they're going to be intense.

(Swiftwing says, they had better be. Yeah, he isn't any better than Silversong. And come to think of it, where is Roselio?).


	10. Chapter 9: Recalling the Past

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Nine: Recalling the Past  
**(There, Silversong. Happy now?)

Gym Leader Fantina was home.

Yes, this strange house was actually her home before _it_ happened and changed everything. She told us the stranger story of how she was "summoned" to her old house when she was having a seancé at her gym in Hearthome City. It was like a "whisper from the dead" that someone was "trespassing" in her old home.

At that word, Dusk's face reddened. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to trespass," she said. "We didn't know this was your old house."

Fantina looked uncomfortable at her choice of words. "Non, non, this isn't your fault," she said quickly. "I should have been more careful with my words. Everything's been such a mess since _it_ happened-"

Swiftwing's patience finally snapped. "All right," he said loudly. "Everyone's been going all "it" this and "it" that without telling us even once what "it" is. Come on, it's high time we knew, don't you think?"

Meanwhile, out in the corridor of glaring portraits, Roselio had also burst with impatience. "What is "it"?" he demanded, folding his roses in front of him.

Although they were in different rooms, both Fantina and Gengar let out a long sigh.

"All right, here's what really happened..."

_A Note from the Narrator  
_Again, we must rely on Roselio's account of Gengar's story since Roselio and I were in different rooms listening to different stories by different people. Or Pokémon, in Gengar's case.

... "_It_ is a fire," Fantina began. "A vicious fire that burnt down this house..."

"Almost," said Gengar to Roselio. "Almost burnt down this house, but didn't very thoroughly."

"Despite that, the fire had done the damage," Fantina said. "My daughter..."

"My owner..."

"The girl with the two ponytails. She was gone forever on the day of the fire," Fantina sighed.

"How terrible!" we gasped.

"I'm sorry," squeaked Roselio. "So very sorry..."

"Oui, I know, and it struck me really hard, too," Fantina went on. "She was my only child, and she went down with the house, along with her favorite Pokémon, too. I was in mourning for a long time, until now perhaps, and I have been trying to communicate with her since, through my many seancés-"

"The day was a disaster," Gengar remembered. "That was the day I became who I am now, Gengar the Ghost. Before that, I was Clefable, her faithful companion, before the fire ate all the normality out of me. That was why I said I haven't always been Gengar."

"You mean you've been trying to communicate with the dead?!" Dusk gasped.

"You mean you're now dead?" Roselio gasped in fright.

"Oui," Fantina said. "I decided to become a Ghost-type Gym Leader, to familiarize myself with the undead. I left my old house, trained my own Gengar, and became stronger. But it doesn't seem to make any difference to my attempts to communicate with those on the other side."

"Umm, yeah?" Gengar drawled in a "Duh?" voice. "You're a bit slow to only figure it out now."

"But what caused the fire?" Dusk asked. She doubted that it was because of a simple electrical failure or something.

"How did the fire happen?" Roselio asked, still a bit put out.

"Well, it was because of that horrid butler!" Fantina exclaimed. "Why, he was the simpleton who made a mess in the kitchen and set fire to the house. If he had been more careful, _it_ wouldn't have happened. My husband saw it when he handled the stove wrong but was too late to do anything. My husband felt really bad despite the fact that it wasn't his fault that he decided to live separately. I think he built a mansion somewhere... Meanwhile the butler also went down with the house and my daughter and her Pokémon. My husband and I were the only ones who were safe."

"Well, it was none other than Fantina's husband himself," Gengar sneered. "He was trying to be a know-it-all and fix some electrical stuff in the kitchen, although the butler - he loved my owner very much - had suggested to call a real electrician. The poor butler was killed along with my owner and yours truly, but Fantina's husband got out of it. I believe he now lives separately from his wife, probably because of guilt. If I'm not mistaken he's built another mansion just like this one in this Sinnoh region."

STOP!

_Wait and see. Re-read._

If you are careful, you might have already noticed right off the bat that something isn't right.

In fact, something is obviously very wrong with the stories of Fantina and Gengar. Their stories contradict each other's. What is going on here?

(I asked Roselio if he perhaps misinterpreted Gengar's story, but he said he was positive he didn't. But then what... But... How...?

OK. I'm officially confused).


	11. Chapter 10: Galactic

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Ten: Galactic  
**(Silversong says I'm back to square one. _What happened to the chapter title rule?_ she said. Me, I couldn't have cared less, especially because my brain is reeling).

Once upon a time, there was a family who lived in an old mansion in the woods between Eterna City and Floaroma Town. The family consisted of a father, a mother, a little girl, and a butler who is an old man. The mother had her Gengar, and the little girl had a Clefable whom she always plays with. The butler loved the girl very much, and has assumed the role of her caregiver. Although the girl hated baths, she found that they were slightly better if her Clefable came too (emphasize on _slightly_).

But then something happened that changed them forever.

There was a big fire which was set (_supposedly_) accidentally by the butler/the father himself (circle the appropriate answer). As a result, two people and one Pokémon (_supposedly_) got killed in the fire: the girl, the butler, and the beloved Clefable. The only ones who got out alive were the mother and the father, the father who saw the butler accidentally set the house on fire/set fire to the house himself (circle the appropriate answer). They moved out of the house in the woods. The grieving mother moved to Hearthome City, becoming a Ghost-type Gym Leader while never really going out of mourning. She conducted seancés to try to communicate with her departed daughter, while the father seems to have vanished altogether to another part of the Sinnoh region...

...

Fantina was finishing the story - her version of the story - about the big Old Chateau fire when a familiar green Pokémon with roses at the end of his arms came staggering into the room.

"For Arceus' sake, Roselio! Where have you been?" Swiftwing exploded, as if he'd been looking for him all this time. Roselio seemed to believe his act, but not me.

(Sorry, Swiftwing, but I honestly think you could've done better).

"Sorry," Roselio grimaced. "I was held up in the corridor by a tickling, talking portrait."

"I should've known. You and your talking imaginary friends," Swiftwing rolled his eyes.

Roselio was about to protest when he seemed to see Fantina for the first time since he came into the room. "Oh, Gym Leader Fantina! Hello, err, I mean, bonjour," Roselio said. I rolled my eyes. Since we met her, he'd been fascinated by her ability to speak French.

"Bon-" Fantina was about to reply when she was interrupted by a weird noise which seemed to be coming from another room.

Thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.

Meta Knight's sensitive ears pricked up. "What was that?" he asked.

"Maybe it's a wild Pokémon," Froslass said logically.

"Maybe it's a robber who's trying to break into the house," Ultramarine said suspiciously.

"Maybe it's a ghost," Roselio moaned fearfully.

"Maybe it's one of your imaginary friends," said Swiftwing doubtfully.

"There's only one way to find out," Dusk said. "We'll go out and see for ourselves."

...

I noticed that Roselio peered into the eyes of the people in each of the portraits as we walked down the corridor, as if he was looking for something that wasn't there. I hung back from the group so that he wouldn't get separated again.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"Nothing," was all he said... Before scrutinizing carefully the next portrait.

Meanwhile, Dusk, Fantina, and the others were peering methodically into each room. They were looking for the source of the weird thumping noise.

"Good grief, Roselio's imaginary friends might be real after all," Swiftwing grumbled as Dusk peered into yet another room.

* * *

... ... ... ...

...The old TV was crackling with static, throwing wayward shadows all across the room, and the mysterious man's face.

"Come on," he mumbled as he stood in front of the TV. "Don't fail me now."

And he gave the TV another thunk.

Thump!

Nothing happened.

"Another one should do it," he muttered as he gave the TV another good thunk. "Come on. Please come out."

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.

The old TV only crackled in reply.

On the other side of the doorway, Dusk was staring at the back of a short, plump man with weird purple hair.

On the back of his white shirt was the too-familiar letter G.

Dusk knew who this man was. They'd had a not-so-pleasant encounter in the past.

Charon. A Galactic.

... ... ... ...

...The old TV was crackling with static, throwing wayward shadows all across the room.

Charon's shadow-distorted face cracked a smile as a small Electric-type Pokémon sprang right out of the TV.


	12. Chapter 11: Electric Insanity

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Eleven: Electric Insanity**

ROTOM  
- Sinnoh Pokédex No. 152 -  
- National Pokédex No. 479 -  
Electric-Ghost

If Silversong had read my last sentence of the previous chapter, she would have corrected me in her signature drawling voice that the Pokémon who came out of the TV wasn't just an Electric-type Pokémon. It was a dual Electric-Ghost-type called Rotom.

As usual, I don't really care. I only have my eyes and ears for Dusk's and Fantina's conversation with Charon.

"Galactic, what are you doing here?" Fantina demanded.

Charon stiffly turned around. Rotom hovered above his shoulder. Charon flashed a weird, awkward smile at the Gym Leader.

"Please excuse me," he said in a croaky voice. "I was only going to reunite myself with an old friend."

"I thought you didn't have any friends," Ultramarine said.

Charon frowned at him. "I did when I was small," he said. "Let me introduce my oldest friend. This is Rotom."

"Sinnoh Pokédex No. 152 and National Pokédex No. 479," Dusk chimed in to Charon's annoyance while looking down at her Pokédex. "Yup. Got him."

"What are you doing, trespassing into my old house?" Fantina snapped, getting back to the topic. Then she seemed to remember the downside of using the word "trespass" and added quickly, "It's OK for Dusk since she's an exploring Trainer and all, not a Galactic."

"Like I said earlier, I was only trying to find Rotom," Charon said without hesitation. "I know he's been here all the time since _it_ happened. I haven't been able to come here ever since due to some Galactic schemes we're working on."

Dusk was interested in Galactic schemes, but Fantina was drawn to another word altogether.

_It._

_"_What do you mean by _it_?_" _Fantina demanded.

"_It_? Oh, that," Charon said dismissively. "I meant the big Old Chateau fire, of course. Funny you should ask... You're the former owner after all."

Fantina froze.

"Tell me what you know about _it_."

And so Charon began his tale.

* * *

The Boy Named Charon and the Mysterious Rotom  
_A story about the Galactic Charon's past_

Once upon a time there lived a small boy named Charon. Even as a boy, he was different from the other tykes. When the others marveled when seeing their toy robots move, little Charon was more interested in wondering _how_ it was able to move when it wasn't a living thing.

One important day, Charon was playing with his toy robot as always, when he saw that his robot was making moves he never knew it could make. It was only supposed to be able to walk and move its mechanical arms, not shoot weak electric bolts at him!

After a closer inspection, suddenly a small Pokémon merged out of the robot. Charon named this new Pokémon simply "Rotom".

Charon and Rotom became fast friends. It didn't take long for Charon to disover that Rotom's power was that he could merge with electrical appliances and become one with it.

One day, Charon and Rotom were playing in the woods somewhere between Floaroma Town and Eterna City when they found themselves wandering into the yard of a big house. Curiously peering in through one of the windows, Charon saw a little girl, an old man, and a Clefable in the kitchen. They seemed to be fixing a sandwich snack.

That was when he saw the microwave.

"I wonder if you can get into that microwave and fix _me_ a grilled sandwich," he joked dryly to Rotom.

But he hadn't counted on Rotom's thinking that what he'd said was an order.

Rotom sneaked in through the open window and merged into the microwave.

Charon didn't know what Rotom did next, but the microwave _exploded_.

The rest, they say, is history.


	13. Chapter 12: The Last Seance

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Twelve: The Last Seancé**

A tiny Electric-Ghost-type Pokémon, a Galactic, and a microwave were all it took to make _it_ happen.

The truth did make Fantina feel bad for suspecting the butler for the fire. He never had anything to do with it. How could he? He loved the little girl very much.

But the truth, if anything, also made her despise the Galactics even more.

Now, back in the Hearthome Gym, she poured a vial of Gengar poison into her bowl, watching as smoke rose.

"...and with this I contact the world of the dead."

Just like any other seancé, she received another short vision.

Blue skies.

Laughter.

A girl in two ponytails was running across a field of blinding green, laughing. A few paces behind her, a pink Clefable was struggling to catch up. Due to its short legs, the Clefable got left behind and finally gave up, lying down onto the grass and panting. The girl laughed but then returned to her Pokémon's side.

An old man entered the vision, carrying a basket. The girl smiled up at him. The old man crouched down and began to take out some things from inside the basket and handing them around.

Sandwiches.

As the girl happily bit into it, the old man and the Clefable doing just the same to their own sandwiches, the vision faded away into nothingness. And as much as Fantina wanted to see her daughter a while longer, she knew she'd seen what she needed to see.

She was happy, even in the other side.

Fantina sighed, got up, and put away the bowl forever.

The candles flickered, dimmed, and finally went out altogether, throwing her and her Gengar back into the darkness they had come to love.

...

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

When we emerged out of the Old Chateau, we found that it was already really dark outside. I wondered how much time we'd actually spent inside that house. It amazes me how a mystery can seize so much of your time.

"Case closed, let's go back to the rest house so I can go to sleep," yawned Swiftwing lazily. Meta Knight, Ultramarine, and Silversong echoed with mutters of agreement.

Suddenly Dusk turned around, a huge smile on her face.

Uh-oh. I know this face. And it means trouble.

"Not so fast," she said. "Don't you remember why we came here in the first place?"

I didn't. It seemed such a long time ago since we last saw daylight. Do you?

"We came here to look for nocturnal Pokémon, remember?" Dusk said enthusiastically. "As Kammy always says, a good Trainer never gives up under any circumstances. Now's the right time to really get started! I wonder what kinds of Pokémon we'll see? That particular excitement in the chateau just pumped adrenaline into my veins! Don't you all feel the same?"

...We could only groan.


	14. Chapter 12,5: I'm Not Tails

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Twelve-and-a-half: I'm Not Tails**

Pssst, it's me, Roselio. I'm not supposed to do anything with Tails' story, but I have something to tell you. So I sneaked this in with hope that Tails didn't see it until you did.

So here's the thing: after the others had already gone outside, I met Gengar again in the corridor of glaring portraits. OK, I didn't actually meet him, he pinched me again, that annoying prankster.

Call me slow-witted or anything you want, but I just realized then that Gengar appears only when I'm alone. That's why Swiftwing keeps teasing me about imaginary friends and whatnot. It was as if Gengar only exists for me.

I asked him why and he said that it was because I was the only "believer" in our party. I understood his point, though - Silversong, Ultramarine, Meta Knight, and Dusk herself all seemed too logical to believe in ghosts. Swiftwing - you don't even have to ask about him. And Tails, although she is sympathetic, still doesn't fully believe in the supernatural.

(See, Tails? I just complimented you. Please do me a favor and keep this chapter in, please?)

Then I asked him why he would only appear in portraits and why he wouldn't go out into the real world.

"Ah, that," Gengar chuckled. "I have nothing against the real world. It's just that the real world is a bit too... Real."

"Too real?" I was confused.

"Yeah. I mean, things aren't looking good for me in the real world, are they? My home has been burnt down, my owner is dead, and I have nowhere to go. So instead of wandering down these cursed corridors, I shall just stay in the world of these portraits. The world I'm in now, and the world I shall be in until who-knows-when."

"Why portraits?"

"Why? Hmm. That's because pictures and their lot are lies."

"You know, that didn't really help," I said.

"I know. I meant, pictures and portraits might not be portraying the truth. Lies. Even portraits of people. You could have your skin whitened, have your shirt painted in purple instead of blue, have your hair lengthened and whatnot; you could manipulate pictures and portraits. That's why I said they were lies."

"Oh."

(Smart answer, Roselio).

"But why would you want to live in them if they're lies?" I asked. (Better).

Gengar smiled. "Because they're beautiful lies," he replied. "After all, you always manipulate them to portray yourself better than you really are. I prefer living here than outside, knowing the painful truth. I'd rather stay here, replaying the moments when I was Clefable over and over again in my head."

"Why don't you go somewhere else? I'm sure you'll find a better place for you to stay than an empty house."

Gengar laughed bitterly. "I'm surprised you asked me that. I thought you already knew the answer to that. If you didn't, well, my answer is "loyalty". Remember the ghost girl your Trainer met in one of the rooms? She was my Trainer. If she's still here, then I'll stay here too until she's ready to leave." Gengar leaned out of the frame towards me, "Because that's what us Pokémon are made for. To be loyal companions of their Trainers."

I nodded furiously. Of course. Loyalty.

And so, here's my message to all you Pokémon Trainers out there: always treat your Pokémon with love, because we were made to accompany you, be friends with you, protect you, fight for you, and be loyal to you no matter what, even after life.

(Yay! Finally I say something deep and meaningful. There. I hope you don't think of me as such a dimwit anymore).


	15. Chapter 13: Another Meanwhile

**The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:**

**~The Old Chateau~**

**Chapter Thirteen: Another Meanwhile  
**(Believe me, Silversong was horrified after reading this title).

In a mansion somewhere far away from the Eterna Forest, the waitress balanced a drink in a fancy goblet on her tray.

The mansion, if Dusk went there, would hit her as strangely familiar.

_There were two sets of stairs leading from an upper floor to the ground floor, one on the left and the other on the right. Right in front of us was a single door, and there were a Pokémon statue on each side of it. Roselio was sure their eyes were trailing him as he went past..._

Although alike, however, this mansion was not that same mansion.

This was - you got it - a _reproduction_.

The drink was sophisticated-looking itself, it was a rainbow of unusual colors, and a tiny paper umbrella was sticking out of the top. The waitress carried the tray to her master's room in the Pokémon Mansion and paused at the door. She knocked three times. Elegantly.

"Mr. Backlot, sir? I brought you your drink."

"Enter," a voice said from the other side of the door, and she did.

A man was sitting at a desk in the middle of the room, surrounded by glass cases containing his antique statuette collection. Everywhere there were signs telling visitors: DO NOT TOUCH.

It was his antiques-collecting hobby that earned him considerable amounts of money which could pay for this new mansion and other luxurious things he'd spent on in the past. (Well, where do you think Fantina got her fancy dresses? They aren't free, that's for sure).

The man emptied his glass, put it back onto her tray, and stood up. He walked out of the room and towards the far end of the left wing with his waitress following closely behind. He turned around just long enough to request another drink before opening the last door in the corridor.

"Shall I bring your new drink into that room, sir?" the waitress asked innocently.

However, her master's reaction was strangely intense.

He whipped around and glared at her. "No, you shall not," he snapped. "How many times do I have to tell you that no one must ever enter that room besides myself? That room is for my eyes only. No. Just put the glass on my table in the statuette room."

"Y-y-yes, sir," the waitress stammered nervously, but the door had already been slammed shut in her face.

* * *

...

Once alone in the secret room, the man turned off the lights, lit some candles, and stood facing a bowl in the middle of the room, all the while looking insanely solemn.

He produced a small drawstring bag and started putting random ingredients from the bag into the bowl.

"DeepSeaScale of a Gorebyss..."


End file.
